Wintermute Contacts
You are who you know. In the shadows of the Sixth World, this is truer than you might want to believe. Contacts are NPCs who serve as sources of the information, goods, and services that keep shadowrunners alive and well. Often, they can’t get chip-truth about what they’ve gotten themselves into from anyone else. This section will help you get the most out of these all-important NPCs. Contacts By The Numbers Shadowrunners and their contacts are going to see an awful lot of each other. Like other prime runners, they should be built with the Priority System. Generally, they should be considered Inferior or Equal to the PCs. Assume that they’re going to have the basic gear and lifestyle they need to do their day job. A Knight Errant detective is going to have a pistol, handcuffs, and light body armor, for instance, while Mr. Johnson is going to have a fancy commlink and high-nuyen suit. Contacts are different from other prime runners because they’re useful to the PCs. There are two Ratings that measure just how useful they are: Connection and Loyalty. Connection: This measures the contact’s influence, if any, measured on a scale of 1 to 12. The higher the Connection Rating, the more juice the contact has. The Connection Rating Table describes each level and shows how they should be portrayed. A character can’t start the game with any contact with a Connection Rating higher than 6. Loyalty: This shows you how much you can trust the contact. This is measured on a scale of 1 to 6. The higher the Loyalty Rating, the more the contact is willing to do for the PC. The Loyalty Rating Table gives details on each level and how it should be handled. The Loyalty Rating is applied as bonus dice whenever a PC negotiates with the contact (or vice-versa). The gamemaster should also use it as a modifier or a threshold (as appropriate) when someone else tries to put the squeeze on a contact about the runners. Using Contacts Friday night socials and a beer at the local bar are all well and good, but the real value of a contact is what they can do for you. There are four major things they can do: legwork, networking, swag, and favors. While these things are helpful, they rarely come for free (Favor for a Friend, p. 389). Before a character can get help from his contacts, though, he has to get hold of them. Since they live their own lives when they’re not helping the PCs, this isn’t always as easy as it might sound. For the most part, there isn’t a set process or test to determine a contact’s availability; that is entirely up to the gamemaster. It depends on the needs of his story. If getting hold of a particular contact would give the PCs information that the gamemaster isn’t ready for them to have, then that contact is caught in a meeting and can’t take the PC’s call. If the PCs don’t call a particular contact, though, and that contact has vital information that the PCs are missing, then he might call the PCs for reasons of his own. This can serve the dual purpose of helping the players out and setting up another run later on down the road. If the gamemaster doesn’t care one way or another about a particular contact getting involved in the story, he should roll 2D6; the contact is available if the roll equals or exceeds the contact’s Connection rating. The more influential the contact, after all, the busier they tend to be. Other factors might also be in play, such as how the character treated the contact the last time they dealt with each other, or who owes whom a favor. Legwork: This is the primary function of most contacts in a Shadowrun game. Typically, legwork means discovering or following up on clues, and contacts provide one of the best ways for shadowrunners to get the information they need. Most published adventures have a Legwork section that lists pertinent information that a character can get from a particular source. When a character asks a contact for information, there is a chance that the contact may already know the answer. Make a skill test using any of the contact’s appropriate Knowledge skills + linked attribute to determine if the contact knows something and exactly what he knows. The contact’s Social limit applies to this test. If the test is successful and the contact knows something, the gamemaster determines if the contact is willing to share that information. If it’s inconsequential to them, contacts will generally share the info. If it’s info the contact was asked to keep confidential, or it could hurt him if the wrong people learned he knew it, he will be understandably reluctant to share it. In this case, a Negotiation Test will be necessary to get the contact to divulge what he knows; apply the contact’s Loyalty rating as extra dice to your roll. A PC’s Street Cred can affect the Social limit for this test (see Street Cred, p. 372). You can lay out some nuyen to get the contact to be a little more willing to share; the gamemaster can set the exact parameters, but generally for each 100 x (7—Loyalty) nuyen you shell out, you get an extra die on your Negotiation Test (one of the few times you get to actually buy dice). If the test fails and the contact doesn’t know anything, he can still ask around to learn the answer. The contact makes an Extended Connection + Charisma Social Test, where the interval is 1 hour and the threshold is based on the gamemaster-determined difficulty of the question/information sought, as noted on the Extended Test Thresholds table (p. 48). The gamemaster can substitute an appropriate Knowledge skill for Charisma. He can also apply any modifiers he feels are appropriate, especially if the information sought isn’t something the contact would normally have access to. Networking: Sometimes runners have to talk to someone they just don’t know. Perhaps they’re trying to convince a megacorp to stop hunting them, or they need help from a gang leader to deal with another gang. If the characters don’t know, or can’t approach, the right people, they’re going to have to go to their contacts and ask them to be their go-betweens. If a contact is approached to network on behalf of a shadowrunner, determine if there is any risk to the contact in making the needed inquiries. Dragons, for instance, might take a dim view of a request for a meeting if it’s handled poorly; this qualifies as a high risk. If there is risk, you might have to convince your contact first (through Negotiation, Con, blackmail, or good role-playing). If the contact agrees to help out, the contact makes an Etiquette + Charisma Social Test with a threshold equal to the target NPC’s Connection Rating. Apply any appropriate social modifiers, based on the relationship between the PCs and the target NPC and a dice pool bonus equal to the contact’s Connection rating. If the test succeeds, the contact has successfully arranged a meeting with the desired person, either in person or via the Matrix. Timing might be an issue; the gamemaster should use his best judgment. If the players push, tell them 4D6 hours. Once the meeting is set up, impressing the NPC, either positively or negatively, is up to the player characters. This generally ends the contact’s role in networking. If the meeting goes really well or really badly, however, it can affect the contact’s rep accordingly. The contact might not be able to arrange a direct meeting with the desired individual, but he might be able to arrange a meeting with someone close to that person. This person, in turn, can then be negotiated with to arrange the meeting with the NPC in question. These meetings are easier for the contact to arrange, and generally entail less risk to his life, limbs, and reputation. Swag: This is like networking, except you’re specifically trying to buy or sell something. A contact can use her connections to find potential buyers or sellers. Contacts looking for traders follow the same procedures for Availability and Fencing Tests (p. 418) that PCs do, using their own Charisma and Negotiation skill instead of yours, along with their Connection rating as a modifier to their Social limit. If you’re willing to sweeten the deal for the potential trading partner, let your contact know in advance—they’re good, but they’re not psychic. Favors: This covers just about anything else that a contact can do for a character, from patching up a shotup vehicle to patching up a shot-up shadowrunner, and almost everything in between. Any kind of direct aid rendered by a contact usually counts as a favor. There are two types of favors: business services and personal assistance. Business services are those that you could obtain anywhere, from anybody, such as medical treatment or equipment repair. The problem with getting it from a complete stranger is the fact that a lot of those strangers keep records, and that’s not always a good thing for a shadowrunner. A contact will still charge what the market will bear for services rendered, but he’ll also do it all under the table. If you want to haggle for a lower price, you can try a Negotiation + Charisma Social Opposed Test, adding your contact’s Loyalty Rating to your dice pool. Net hits on either side raise or lower the fee by ten percent, as appropriate. Personal assistance is a little harder to define. It covers many kinds of aid that aren’t paid for with cash. Whether or not a contact is willing to render personal assistance is up to player and gamemaster judgment. Occasionally there might be a need for more formal guidance. Some favors, obviously, are bigger than others. The gamemaster will look on the Favor Rating Table to see how big a personal favor you might be asking for. Favor Ratings range from 1 to 6; the bigger the number, the more you’re asking their contact to take on. Contacts will normally agree to personal assistance with a Favor Rating equal to or less than their Loyalty Rating. If the Favor Rating exceeds the contact’s Loyalty Rating, you’ll need to convince the contact with a Negotiation + Charisma Social Opposed Test. Of course, you’ll owe your contact at least one favor to be named later. How the favor is repaid depends on the gamemaster, but it should be at least equal in Favor Rating. Of course, a gamemaster can use a favor owed as a plot hook for a new adventure (Favor for a Friend, at right). Glitches Favor For A Friend Party Contacts Bartenders * Beat Cops * Kozato Yoshida Doctors * George Hampton Fixer Mafia Consiglieri Mechanic Mr. Johnson Street Docs * Calrin Eljor Talismonger